Post by Andrew is Good on Jan 15, 2007 14:28:57 GMT -5
I was thinking about this recently, and I think with the Rosie/Donald match, celebrity involvement in wrestling has left a bad taste in people's mouths. I think even after the David Arquette incident, people really wanted nothing to do with celebrities in wrestling.
But celebrities in wrestling has been around for a good long while. People see celebrities as almost demi-gods, which is kinda sick in our society. But why do you think People Magazine sells very well, or those tabloid magazines. People want to hear about these kinds of people. Even in the animal kingdom, I was watching Tv and basically it was saying that when a monkey was given the chance to eat food or look at a picture of another monkey, they choose the picture of the other monkey. And human beings are like that too. Human beings want to hear about people who are famous. It's almost like, they have this connection, that maybe they could be famous too or get some attention.
Another example is one involving school kids. When asked what job they prefered, a doctor, a senator, a solider or an assistent to a celebrity, most girls choose the assistent. Not the celebrity exactly, but the assistent (the jobs might not all be right, but the fact was that the assistent to the celebrity was in there and it was a winner). People want to be close to this fame.
So celebrities in professional wrestling are always going to spark interest. I feel that celebrities involved in wrestling are a very good thing, but only when done right. The two best examples I can think of, the two prime examples of great celebrity involvement are two men who really helped wrestling as a whole. Muhammad Ali and Andy Kaufman.
I have an old tape back at home, and it's called the Best of the World Wrestling Federation Vol. 1. It was made in 1985, and it had clips from the early 80s, and even the late 70s. There was one match in particular that was very interesting. It was between Baron Mikel Scicluna and Gorilla Monsoon. Before the match started, Muhammad Ali was seen in the crowd, trying to run into the ring and fight Gorilla Monsoon. He eventually broke through the people trying to hold him back, took his shirt off, and looked ready to go one on one with Gorilla. He was about to land a punch, but Gorilla picked him up and gave him an airplane spin. He dumped Ali on the ground, and Ali made sure to get out of the ring and away from Gorilla. A bunch of people started holding him back and bringing him back into the crowd, and he continued to jaw jack.
Gorilla then got on the mic and talked about how he shouldn't be in this buisness and stuff like that. It was great stuff. Muhammad Ali was a huge star. He didn't have to make Gorilla Monsoon look good, and make himself look foolish. But he did. Muhammad Ali always had great respect for the wrestling buisness. He even once said that he got a lot of his personality from watching Gorgeous George. He said that people may think it's fake, but it didn't matter to him. It was still great to watch. Ali would also have Classy Freddie Blassie in his corner when he would face Antonio Inoki in a Wrestler vs Boxer match. Many things Ali did for the buisness.
The other of course is Andy Kaufman, another big wrestling fan. Andy was locked into a feud with Jerry Lawler. Their match was similar to the K-Fed/Cena match, with Lawler giving his head to Kaufman, like Cena did with Federline. They even had an appearance on the tonight show with Kaufman in a neckbrace after he took a piledriver from Lawler. Again, Kaufman played the heel in this, and was made to look bad so that Lawler could look good.
These are examples of good celebrity involvement. Celebrity involvement also helped out the very first Wrestlemania, and eventually lead to its major success in the mainstream.
Of course with good, there's always bad. The David Arquette World Title reign will forever make people weary about celebrities in wrestling, because everyone is now afraid that a celebrity will come in and win the World Title. Even David Arquette didn't want to do it, because as a huge mark himself, he respected the buisness. He respected what that belt meant. And he knew that him wearing the belt would be bad news. In the end of his run, he donated his entire pay to the families of Owen Hart and Brian Pillman. So maybe on some level that was good celebrity involvement, but the stigma of that will never be forgotten.
And even with the possible upcoming angle with McMahon vs Trump, it could work out very well. If wrestlers get over, and it's more about the wrestlers then McMahon and Trump, it will help the buisness as a whole. But something like what we saw last week is just another black eye in professional wrestling, and another reason why celebrity involvement in wrestling is looked upon in a negative light. People should realize that celebrities the majority of the time have only helped, and that things like the Arquette title run and Rosie vs Donald last week are just the exceptions, and not the rule.
But celebrities in wrestling has been around for a good long while. People see celebrities as almost demi-gods, which is kinda sick in our society. But why do you think People Magazine sells very well, or those tabloid magazines. People want to hear about these kinds of people. Even in the animal kingdom, I was watching Tv and basically it was saying that when a monkey was given the chance to eat food or look at a picture of another monkey, they choose the picture of the other monkey. And human beings are like that too. Human beings want to hear about people who are famous. It's almost like, they have this connection, that maybe they could be famous too or get some attention.
Another example is one involving school kids. When asked what job they prefered, a doctor, a senator, a solider or an assistent to a celebrity, most girls choose the assistent. Not the celebrity exactly, but the assistent (the jobs might not all be right, but the fact was that the assistent to the celebrity was in there and it was a winner). People want to be close to this fame.
So celebrities in professional wrestling are always going to spark interest. I feel that celebrities involved in wrestling are a very good thing, but only when done right. The two best examples I can think of, the two prime examples of great celebrity involvement are two men who really helped wrestling as a whole. Muhammad Ali and Andy Kaufman.
I have an old tape back at home, and it's called the Best of the World Wrestling Federation Vol. 1. It was made in 1985, and it had clips from the early 80s, and even the late 70s. There was one match in particular that was very interesting. It was between Baron Mikel Scicluna and Gorilla Monsoon. Before the match started, Muhammad Ali was seen in the crowd, trying to run into the ring and fight Gorilla Monsoon. He eventually broke through the people trying to hold him back, took his shirt off, and looked ready to go one on one with Gorilla. He was about to land a punch, but Gorilla picked him up and gave him an airplane spin. He dumped Ali on the ground, and Ali made sure to get out of the ring and away from Gorilla. A bunch of people started holding him back and bringing him back into the crowd, and he continued to jaw jack.
Gorilla then got on the mic and talked about how he shouldn't be in this buisness and stuff like that. It was great stuff. Muhammad Ali was a huge star. He didn't have to make Gorilla Monsoon look good, and make himself look foolish. But he did. Muhammad Ali always had great respect for the wrestling buisness. He even once said that he got a lot of his personality from watching Gorgeous George. He said that people may think it's fake, but it didn't matter to him. It was still great to watch. Ali would also have Classy Freddie Blassie in his corner when he would face Antonio Inoki in a Wrestler vs Boxer match. Many things Ali did for the buisness.
The other of course is Andy Kaufman, another big wrestling fan. Andy was locked into a feud with Jerry Lawler. Their match was similar to the K-Fed/Cena match, with Lawler giving his head to Kaufman, like Cena did with Federline. They even had an appearance on the tonight show with Kaufman in a neckbrace after he took a piledriver from Lawler. Again, Kaufman played the heel in this, and was made to look bad so that Lawler could look good.
These are examples of good celebrity involvement. Celebrity involvement also helped out the very first Wrestlemania, and eventually lead to its major success in the mainstream.
Of course with good, there's always bad. The David Arquette World Title reign will forever make people weary about celebrities in wrestling, because everyone is now afraid that a celebrity will come in and win the World Title. Even David Arquette didn't want to do it, because as a huge mark himself, he respected the buisness. He respected what that belt meant. And he knew that him wearing the belt would be bad news. In the end of his run, he donated his entire pay to the families of Owen Hart and Brian Pillman. So maybe on some level that was good celebrity involvement, but the stigma of that will never be forgotten.
And even with the possible upcoming angle with McMahon vs Trump, it could work out very well. If wrestlers get over, and it's more about the wrestlers then McMahon and Trump, it will help the buisness as a whole. But something like what we saw last week is just another black eye in professional wrestling, and another reason why celebrity involvement in wrestling is looked upon in a negative light. People should realize that celebrities the majority of the time have only helped, and that things like the Arquette title run and Rosie vs Donald last week are just the exceptions, and not the rule.
